Stories That Crafted The Earth

INTRODUCTION

This book is all about giving tribal peoples a voice. There is a section at the back of the book written by Survival International, a registered charity who are at the forefront of protecting the rights of tribal peoples around the world. They describe here some of the indigenous cultures which the book covers, including their history, culture, contemporary threats, and how readers can help stop the cultures eroding. If you are touched by the ancient tales, or the accounts of these peoples’ plights, you are the only one who can decide for yourself to respond.

Ever since the dawn of language, Story has taught people important lessons about the cultures they live in and the cultures of other times and peoples. Stories form an important part of our local, national and global heritage. They also enthrall the mind, open the heart, and help make learning fun. The Earth Creation stories of tribal peoples provide a lavish platform from which to investigate 'modern day' social and environmental concerns and solutions.

The stories presented here are medicine stories – they have been passed down for so many generations, across a span of time lasting thousands of years – that somehow they open locks within us. Their inherent power to help listeners take a more positive stance in their lives has rung clear.

Earth Creation tales often share common ground when illustrating humanity's fragile position as a tiny cog in an enormous life macrocosm . They teach us to respect the natural world, to respect other people, and to respect ourselves.

All these tales are very ancient, and nothing survives in this world, cherished and held sacred for many generations, if it lacks either power or meaning. These stories are treasures beyond price. They have changed many lives. I hope they may lighten your heart and open your mind and lift your dreamings.

Creation stories have survived since the beginning, and they will last until the end. They shall not die out until the last tree has fallen. Until the last song has died. Until the last river has dried. Until the last breath has been sighed. Until the last word has been spoken. Only when the last person in the world has died - then the spirit inside these stories will be gone. Then there shall be a period of silence... for a while. We live inside the dream of these stories, just as the dreaming of them lives inside of us.

AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL DREAMTIME

THE RAINBOW SERPENT

(The origin of our world)

We the Aboriginal peoples of the continent now called Australia have been here for much much longer than the white man. We are the oldest culture on the Earth. We have been here longer than anyone else has been anywhere. Some say we have been here in our home for over 100,000 years. When European settlers arrived, just over two hundred years ago, there were over 400 different Aboriginal countries. Australia is not one land. It is many lands. This story we are about to share, it is said to be the oldest story in the world. It is the only story which was shared between all Aboriginal countries in our land, we would walk to one another across vast tracts of terrain, to share each section of what the Rainbow Serpent did in that place where we belong. We do not own the land in the way you think. It owns us. We were born into it. We die into it. We are the children of the land and the original Ancestors. Now settle down and listen to what follows.

This story begins before the stars were in the sky, before the awakening of the sun or moon, before the first tree ever grew or the first wind ever blew, before the first river ever ran or the first fish ever swam. It begins at the very beginning of everything - before the very first change.

Before the very first change, everything was as it always had been. Nothing was any different in any way to that which it had always been - for nothing had ever changed. And the way that everything was, back at the very beginning, was that the whole of everything, everywhere, was a great emptiness - even all the places where the stars are now, as far as the furthest star, were totally empty. A great void of nothingness.

Empty except for one thing. One enormous, tiny thing. This tiny, enormous thing was a round red ball, floating in the emptiness. It was as tiny, and as enormous, as the planet where we all live - the Earth. This round red ball was not just the same size as the Earth we call home, it was, it is, the Earth. This ball was enormous because you could spend every day of your life walking around it, travelling each day and never retracing your steps, and never sleeping twice in the same place, yet even if you lived to be a hundred years old there would still be lots of tinkling rivers, deep ocean floors, winding caves, hilltops and forests that you had not managed to reach. It is tiny because the further you move away from it into the emptiness of outer space, the smaller it looks - until you get so far away it is only a tiny speck, and when you move further away still, it is so small you can’t see it any more. That is why it is so fragile, and needs looking after.

But at the beginning of everything, there were no oceans, no rivers, no trees or forests. The Earth was a perfectly round, perfectly red, ball. And, as you know, it floated in an empty void. The Earth was so red because it was covered in red sand - very dry red sand, so dry it had never been touched or changed by water. The Earth was a ball because it was perfectly round - no hills or valleys, no trees, ocean floors or mountains disturbed the perfect roundness of its surface. Only dry red sand covered it, and nothing else. Even the red sand was perfectly smooth. There were no ripples made by wind, for wind had not yet awoken to become wind. There were no tracks left by animals, for the animals were yet to come to the Earth’s surface. There were not even any tiny holes dug by ants. The dry red sand gently followed the soft perfect curve of the world.

Everything else in all of creation lay dreaming below the sand. They may have been dreaming, but they were not asleep. Nor were they awake, of course. They were in that special moment which we all experience each night and day, that special space between sleep and waking. They had been in this special dream space forever, endlessly, for this was the beginning and nothing came before this. Everyone and everything was there. The birds dreamt of being birds, the fish dreamt of being fish, the crab dreamt of being crab, the dingo dreamt of being dingo, the wombat dreamt of being wombat, the wind dreamt of being wind, the stars dreamt of being stars. Everyone and everything was there. Everyone and everything except for the people and the mountains. They were not at the very beginning, they came later, as you will discover. But for all other things, from the tiniest flower to the greatest of the whales, all had been dreaming there below the sand, dreaming forever before change came - dreaming of what they would be when they finally woke up. This was, this is, the very beginning. It had always been this way.

But forever never lasts, not even this forever at the beginning of everything, and all of a sudden the first change came.

The first change began with two enormous eyes opening up. These two eyes belonged to the first dreamer to awaken. This dreamer had dreamt they would be the first to awaken, and so they were. This dreamer had dreamt they would be an enormous snake, many miles long and over a mile wide, and so they were. This dreamer had dreamt that every scale of their gigantic body would be coloured a different colour to each other scale, and so it was. Every kind of coloured glistened on its scales, its winding length glimmered every hue and every shade of every colour. And so it is that the first dreamer to awaken became known as The Rainbow Serpent.

The Rainbow Serpent pushed its way up through the dry red sand toward the surface, and as it travelled upwards it could feel other dreamers dreaming - Bagaray (kangaroo) dreaming of being Bagaray, Diruwan (emu) dreaming of being Diruwan, Wahn (black crow) dreaming of being Wahn.

When the Rainbow Serpent reached the surface of the Earth it pulled its whole body up onto the dry red sand, leaving a wide hole at the place where it had climbed through. Then the Rainbow Serpent began to travel, its long wide body winding and twisting and coiling behind it. It travelled everywhere, East, South, North, West. And wherever it went, it pushed up the sand into tall hills, and deep valleys trailed its course where the serpents heavy body had slide across the sand. You could say that the whole sky was filled with beautiful colours which shone from the serpent’s scales wherever it travelled - but this is not quite true, for the sky was still dreaming below the sand. Instead, the empty void which would later become Sky was filled with colour, every kind of colour, as the Rainbow Serpent travelled across the dry red sand.

A few times the Rainbow Serpent grew tired, and curled itself up into a enormous mountain of rainbow light, heavy scales glimmering and filling everywhere around with bright colour as the serpent slept. As it slept the red sand below the serpent sank slowly deeper and deeper, shifting below the snake’s colossal weight. Then the Rainbow Serpent awoke and travelled on, leaving behind it a huge smooth chasm deep and round like a gigantic bowl dug into the red earth. These great dry basins were the sleeping places of the Rainbow Serpent.

When finally the Rainbow Serpent had travelled all around the whole of the world, it returned to the place from which it had first slithered froth onto the Earth’s surface, where it had left a deep wide hole. This hole travelled far below the surface of the sand, to the place where the Rainbow Serpent had dreamt before awakening - before the first change came. Towering above this hole the Rainbow Serpent opened its scaled jaws. Its fangs glimmered in the rainbow light which danced forth from its body and head and tail. Its tongue flashed like a great bolt of rainbow lightening. And then, head poised high above the ground, and its huge winding body resting upon the hills just formed, the serpent began to sing.

This was the first song ever sung, for all creatures and beings that would later have songs of their own were still dreaming below the dry red sand. This first song echoed and bounced from hillside to hillside, from valley to valley, along the routes forged during the Rainbow Serpent’s journey around the Earth. With nothing to block its way - no trees, or birds, or wind to halt its flow - the song shimmied its way from valley floor to valley floor to open sandy plain, until it enveloped the whole of the surface of the Earth.

This song sung by the Rainbow Serpent is the first of all songs, and it was sung to awaken the next of the dreamers. Now there had only been one dreamer dreaming of being the Rainbow Serpent, and there was and is only one Rainbow Serpent - though there are many stories about this creature for it has lived since the very beginning of the world and done many things. However below the surface there slept dreamers of every other kind of thing, and the next to awaken were the frogs. There were many dreamers dreaming of being frogs, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of frog dreamers. Some dreamt they were going to be small, others large, some green, some yellow, some white, some brown, some black, some blue, some red, some stripped, some spotted, some not. So there were many different frog dreamings, but they all dreamt together that they would have wide lips, bulbous eyes and toes, wet skin, and fat bellies full of fresh water. They heard the singing of the Rainbow Serpent calling their name. They awoke and began to climb upward, through the other dreamers and slowly, slowly, they clambered with their slow feet and heavy bellies onto the surface of the dry red sand.

Some frogs emerged in the dry valley floors, others on the sides of the dry hills that wrapped and wound their way around the whole of the Earth, others emerged on the tops of the hills. And as they emerged they began to sing. The frogs sang to the serpent and the serpent sang to the frogs, there in the darkness before the coming of the sun, the moon, or the stars. The only light was the colour shining from the scales of the Rainbow Serpent, as it twisted and coiled and travelled the valleys amongst them. This the frogs first saw as a rainbow glow across the horizon, as the serpent travelled other valleys across the edge of the world, amongst other frogs that had just awoken. Then in a great flash of brilliant light the colour would flood the space all around them, as the serpent twisted its long body toward them and amongst them. Then in another flash, the colour softened as the serpent travelled onwards, making its journey around the world, and the light grew faint then was gone. The singing of the frogs went on and on in the dancing, gleaming, waning light. It seemed to go on forever.

But forever never lasts, and the next change came. The Rainbow Serpent took the tip of its tongue, and the tip of its tail, and the shimmering edge of each glittering scale, and it moved amongst the frogs, tickling them. The frogs laughed. With that laughter the fresh waters of the world came forth from the deep dreaming of their bellies. It flowed from the laughing frogs’ mouths. The water wet the sand, then sank deep into the valleys. There the water gathered together and, once gathered together in the valleys, the water began to dance and skip and sing. Soon many of the dry valley floors sang with the jump and splash of the rivers. The rivers flowed fast in places, in others they stopped slow for a while in wide twisting pools, or clapped across heavy rapids, leapt with a mist of spray over falls, before dancing along as rivers again. The rivers flowed into the deep wide resting places which the Rainbow Serpent had made while it slept, filled the dry basins with water, and thus the seas and the oceans were made.

All living things need water, and so it was that with the song of the waters flowing upon the Earth, all other dreamers awoke to its sound. Those that dreamt of being grass awoke and filled the plains and hills. Gum, Wattle, Jacaranda, and Banksia awoke and were trees, just as they had been in their dreams. They dug their roots into the cool damp earth, spread their branches wide and tall, rustled their leaves in song. Honey Ant, Dingo, Wombat, Kangaroo, Wallaby, Goanna and Emu, these awoke and took their place upon the land. Budgerigar, Kookaburra, Cockatoo, Rosella and Galah awoke. They had dreamt of having beaks, claws, feathers, wings, of flying above the land and making their homes in trees. And just as they had dreamt it, so it was. Platypus, Crocodile, Crab, Starfish, Jellyfish, Dolphin, Shark and Eel awoke and settled in the rivers. Wind awoke and leapt into the branches of the trees, or danced across the water throwing up spray and waves, or looked high and leapt toward the clouds. Sky awoke and became Sky. Star and Sun and Moon awoke and took their place in the heavens.

Change had flowed in a mighty wave of awakening that covered the whole of the Earth. How the Earth had changed! No longer was it a ball covered in dry red sand floating in the empty void. Now it was covered in forests, grasses, rivers, hills, marshlands, deserts, oceans. It was thriving with the song of every kind of living thing, a chorus of creation. And it sat nestled in a bed of stars that reached to the furthest imaginings of dreaming.

Every being discovered upon awaking that it was exactly as it had dreamt it would be. Each dreamer’s dream had forged reality, become true, and helped to forge the world. Dreams manifest themselves into the truth of what is - this everything knew. Dreams go far beyond make believe - dreams make happen. Knowing this, everything lived upon the Earth in peace. The peace lasted forever, with the vast tapestry of life upon Earth as a tranquil thriving paradise of dreamers.

But forever never lasts, and the next change came. Some of the dreamers lost their belief in dreams. Perhaps it happened because some dreamers became greedy, and tried dreaming too many dreams all at once, and their dreams toppled, fell, and shattered upon the ground. These dreamers turned away from dreaming and chose to take what they wanted instead of dreaming it - to take it with their fangs, their talons, their claws. And so fighting broke out, and the fighting spread into pockets of war. Almost all things lived still within the dreaming, and were at blissful peace within dream belief and manifestation. However once the war seeped into land, water, and sky, once the war reached these three arenas, a great and mighty sound erupted. The sound was a voice, and it filled everywhere. It was the voice of the Rainbow Serpent, and it echoed heavily along every valley floor, across the breadth of every winding river and broad ocean, to the peak of every hill and the deepest of the caves. All things heard it, and stopped. All things listened. The Rainbow Serpent spoke to all things, its winding body curled amongst the long reach of the hills, and its mouth high in the sky with its tongue flashing fast as rainbow lightening.

I am the Rainbow Serpent, the first of all dreamers to awaken. We are all of us the first of the dreamers, the Ancestral Beings who have forged the Earth and the Sky. I am speaking now simply to remind you - those of you who have forgotten - of the very first law. This law cannot be broken. Try to break it - it will break you. Fulfil it - it will fulfil you. It is simply this - Dream and Respect. Respect yourselves, your dreams, and your world. Your dreams are the forge which fires who you are, and the world you live in. Whatever dream lies deepest in you, this becomes your truth. It will manifest. It will become you and your world.

All beings marvelled at the brilliant light of the Rainbow Serpent, which shone from its glistening scales as it spoke. The serpent then continued, "Those of you who will no longer believe in dreaming, who wish to be tall and strong and powerful through destruction - I shall make you tall, I shall make you strong, I shall make you powerful. But I shall turn you to stone. You shall be the first of the mountains. Though tall and strong, the soft fall of tiny feet travelling across your backs, the pitter of rain, and the caress of the wind shall slowly, slowly, slowly beat you down to dust.

And to those of you who believe most fully in the dreaming - to the most beautiful and bountiful of dreamers, whose dreams fill yourselves and the world around you with gladness and creation - I shall make you human. You shall be the first of the people. You and your children shall come to take a very special place in the world, in dreaming stories and songlines.

Having thus spoken, the Rainbow Serpent then travelled across the hills and valleys before burying deep into the warm earth for a long sleep.

For a long while all beings heeded the advice of the Rainbow Serpent, the first dreamer to awaken. Then the next change came. Some beings again fell into doubt over their dreams and turned to aggression to get what they wanted. Suddenly a deafening sound thundered across the earth, and the beings who were being aggressive became mighty stone mountains. Tall. Strong. Powerful. They towered even over the hills. Yet, what the Rainbow Serpent foretold came to pass. Torn down by the rain and wind - and the people and animals who walked or crawled or hopped across their backs - today those first mountains are gone to nothing. They are dust.

In the same instant as the first mountains were made, those who were the best of the dreamers suddenly shed their wings or their claws, their snouts or their scales, their beaks or their fangs, and transformed into people. The best dreamer from each and every kind of thing - the best dreaming snake, the best dreaming goanna, the best dreaming wombat, the best dreaming eagle, the best dreaming butterfly, the best dreaming flower, the best dreaming wind and the best dreaming star - all these and thousands of others turned into people.

The first people had come to the Earth, and it is said that our original human ancestors were beings from the animal and natural kingdoms of sea and earth and sky. Within all people there lies a perfect dreaming. This was true of the past. It is true today. The true task and adventure in life is to find the dream within you. It will not be selfish, for this is to turn to stone and is not a perfect dream. When it comes honour it, respect it. Be patient with it. Believe it. Nurture it into reality.

It is said that this story began at the very beginning of all things, and that it will not end until the last tree has fallen, the last river has dried, the last song has silenced, and the last being has died. Until then we are all within it, creating it as we live our lives.

AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL DREAMTIME

PLATYPUS THE PEACE-KEEPER

(origin of One World Family)

This story begins way back in the very beginnings of the world, when all things had only just awoken from their dreams for the very first time. Before the original awakening, all things in creation had been dreaming below the surface of the sandy Earth, dreaming forever and endlessly. All things were deep in dream. All things were dreaming about what they would become when they did, finally, awaken. Yet, in the beginning, nothing had ever woken up.

And when the awakenings began, all the dreams came true. Mooyi dreamt of possessing strong white feathered wings which could fly him through the winds of the sky, of a flaming yellow crest that he wore upon his head like a crown, of a powerful beak and claws, of a piercing cry. This is exactly how Mooyi the Yellow Crested White Cockatoo was when the moment came to awaken and fly into the sky. Bagaray the kangaroo had dreamt of having strong back legs with which to leap across the earth with great bounds, also of having small front paws, a great long tail, a warm coating of smooth fur, and of possessing a pouch and milk with which to house and feed future generations of children. This is exactly how Bagaray was when the moment came to awaken and leap with powerful jumps across the dry red sand. Umpara the stingray dreamt of possessing wide muscular wings with which to fly below the water, of a smooth fan-like body that could glide and shift through the currents of the sea, and of a great long tail with a powerful sting. This is exactly how Umpara was when the moment came to awaken and slide on smooth black muscular wings into the water.

Everyone woke up, and everyone’s dreams came true. The whole world was filled with creatures of every description. There were creatures of the air such as sparrow, rosella, and eagle. There were creatures of the land, such as wombat, iguana, and echidna. There were creatures of the water, such as yabbie, crab, and starfish. All of the creatures woke up, and they all looked around. It did not take them long to realise that their dreams had come true. They saw the world was a place of many wonders, with a great diversity of dreams unfolding. They looked around, and each awakened dreamer saw that there were many dreamers who had dreamt dreams which were similar to their own, just as there were many who had dreamt of something altogether different.

And so it happened that the creatures began to form tribes. The birds became the Tribe of the Sky, and were confident their tribe was the best of all, as they were the only tribe who could fly into the sky. The land animals became the Tribe of the Land, and they argued that their tribe was best, because the land has hills, mountains, forests, deserts, valleys, and caves to explore. Then the creatures of the ponds and rivers and seas became the Tribe of the Water. They were sure their tribe was best of all, because everything that is alive needs water to survive.

Everyone was very happy. It was decided that a great corroboree would be held - a mighty gathering where stories and songs and dances could be shared, and where the wonderful bounty of the Earth could be celebrated and enjoyed. Yes! Let us have a corroboree to celebrate this - The First Day of the World! And so with great enthusiasm and excitement all the creatures flew and hopped and slithered and ran and skimmed and swam, all of them preparing for the great corroboree that was to celebrate the first day of the world. And as you know, everyone was very happy.

Everyone was very happy, except for one small and unnoticed somebody. This somebody was Gaya-dari the Platypus. For you see, whereas all the other creatures in all of creation had formed into families - families of the Sky, of the Earth, and of the Water - poor Gaya-dari platypus had not been invited into any of them. For you see, the dream of Gaya-dari Platypus had been, well - we suppose one might suggest it had been a bit mixed up, a bit of a jigsaw that was everything all at once. In some ways Gaya-dari Platypus could have fitted quite well into the Sky Family. For she has a bill and webbed feet - both similar to Chippia the duck. Platypus also lays eggs, like the birds do. But unlike the birds of the Sky Tribe, Platypus is covered in fur and has a tail, and produces milk for her babies to drink. Platypus also has poison, a bit like a spider or a snake, except that it is contained in a small hidden claw. And so it might have been argued that Platypus was best fitted to the Land Family. However unlike the Land Tribe, Gaya-dari the Platypus lives under water. However the Water Family had nobody else with a beak like a duck. It easy to see why Gaya-dari Platypus had not been invited into any of the families - for there were just too many reasons why this unusual dreamer did not fit in.

And so while all the other creatures in all of creation gathered in excitement for the corroboree, Gaya-dari Platypus went and swam slowly about in the bottom of a quiet part of the fresh water river which was her home, keeping out of the way and feeling sad. Gaya-dari Platypus was the first creature in all the world to be shunned because of her differences. And there Platypus stayed, in the quiet river away from everyone else, swimming underwater with her eyes and ears and nostrils closed tight, using the little sensory organs in her bill to explore the gravel bottom of the river. This she did alone, as the corroboree went on and on - a great celebration to declare everyone’s joy and amazement at the awakening of the world. Gaya-dari Platypus stayed solitary, feeling her sorrow at being left out, while the sun went up and the sun went down, while the moon came out and the stars shone.

But then, the very next morning, Platypus heard something tapping on the side of the riverbank. Platypus swam up on little webbed feet and poked her small furry head and duckbilled snout out through the softly eddying waves. There she saw Kaneky the yellow crested cockatoo, Galah with his rose chest, Unchurunqua the colourful finch, Moogra-ba the magpie, Chippia the duck, and all the other birds of the Tribe of the Sky.

The birds spoke to Gaya-dari Platypus, and said, Dear Gaya-dari Platypus, we are the birds of the Sky Family - the best family of all! We have noticed your sadness and hope to put it right. We want to have a world where everyone can be happy. You share with us your bill, your webbed feet, and the eggs you lay. These are all attributes of the birds of the Tribe of the Sky. We would like to invite you to join our family - which, by the way, is the best tribe of all, for we are the only family who know how to fly through the sky.

Gaya-dari Platypus was immensely pleased to have been asked to join the Sky Family. Yet she shook her small furry head and beak and said, Thank you so much for inviting me into your family. Just the knowledge I am welcome makes such a difference to my happiness. Yet I feel I must think a little about this. I am Gaya-dari the Platypus, the first to be left out. And I know how it is to be shunned. I must contemplate a while, before leaping at the chance to be a member of your fine Tribe of the Sky. After all, once in a family always in, and I might feel a little uncomfortable being the only one in the Sky Family who cannot fly. Would you please come back in three full turns of Mother Sun and Father Moon? When you return I shall give you my answer!

The birds agreed this was fair logic, and so away they flew with a great flurry of wings that seemed to fill the blue dome of